In the Zone (Portland Storm 5) (26 page)

“I never said she should make stupid choices like getting involved with
that
asswipe,” he said, pointing at the TV screen. “He’s nothing but trouble.”

I took a look at the screen and made a note of the guy’s name—Jesse Carmichael. I hadn’t heard of him, beyond seeing him with Katie on TV a bit and knowing that he was going to be in a new show with her. I didn’t really keep up with any of the Hollywood stuff, though. I was more focused on things that affected me directly. Although, I supposed now that Katie was in Hollywood, things like that
did
affect Webs directly, if not me.

“And you’re not there to beat the snot out of him,” Laura Weber said, rolling her eyes. “We know.”

“She’ll be all right,” Dana said. “Katie has a good head on her shoulders. She might make a few mistakes along the way, but she’ll come out of it okay.”

“If she doesn’t,” Webs said, “you can fucking bet I’ll beat the snot out of that motherfucker. And I’m going to have a few things to say to her when she gets home tomorrow. You can count on that.”

“Don’t be too hard on her, Webs,” Soupy said. “You’ve got to let her live some.”

Webs snorted, but he didn’t say anything else.

I stuck around with them for a while before moving on again.

Babs was hanging out with a few of the younger guys on the team, blissfully unaware of what he’d been missing in terms of seeing Katie with Jesse Carmichael hanging all over her again.

Vladdie and Radek “Radar” Cernak were sitting together in the den, trying to come up with some sort of common language they could use with each other. Radar was the only Czech player on the team and spoke very little English—only slightly more than Vladdie did. I doubted anyone else would be able to understand the pair of them, but at least they seemed to be getting along.

With the kids otherwise occupied, I caught Soupy making out with Rachel in a quiet room. They probably didn’t get a ton of time for that kind of thing. It only made me want to do the same with Brie, though, so I quickly moved along.

I dropped in here and there, talking for a few minutes, sharing a laugh, but I felt as alone in my big house as I was when it was only me and my dogs.

I’d bought this house a few months before Garrett died. I’d hoped it would be a place that my parents and brothers would come to spend time with me when they could. None of them had ever seen it until now—until Shane had shown up a couple of days ago.

After a while, people started to take their leave. I saw them all out to their cars, making sure everyone got away safely. Since I’d left Brie and Shane talking while I made sure everyone got to their cars all right, I didn’t worry about taking a few extra minutes talking to Nicky before he headed home. He didn’t seem drunk or high or anything else of the sort, so I was able to go back inside breathing a little easier about that, at least.

I still didn’t know how it would be when Brie and I were alone together in my car, and I wasn’t entirely sure I trusted myself not to try to kiss her. Nevertheless, I’d asked her to let me take her home, and so there was no more point in putting it off. I headed back inside to grab the package of lingerie from upstairs and steal her away from my brother.

A bump against the wall in the stairs leading to the upper floor stopped me in my tracks, and I turned to see if maybe she was up there. It wasn’t Brie I saw, though, but Shane. And Colesy.

Kissing.

Colesy had pushed Shane up against the wall, and their hands were all over each other in a touch-and-grab frenzy of movement. I felt like a voyeur watching them, especially when Shane opened his eyes and met my gaze. Colesy broke off the kiss. Shane stared me down, daring me to look away, as though trying to will me to let my disgust show.

I wasn’t disgusted, though, and I refused to let him think I was. I kept watching for a few moments more, and then I backed away with a nod and a smile. There was another set of stairs I could use to get up to my room. I didn’t need to disturb the two of them and embarrass Colesy, just to get the sexy bits I’d bought for Brie. Granted, he was making out with my brother in my house, so he must not be
too
worried about me discovering them.

Still. One step at a time. One of these days, Shane would know that I loved him and accepted him exactly as he was.

K
EITH WAS PRETTY
quiet the whole way back to my place. He didn’t seem upset, exactly—
pensive
was probably more accurate. I wasn’t sure what I could say to draw him out, or even if I should say anything at all, so neither of us talked the entire ride until right before he turned onto my street.

“I miss talking to you,” he said so softly that I almost didn’t hear him over the constant sound of the car radio. “I know it’s only been a couple of days, but I like being able to hear your voice.”

I thrummed my fingers on my thigh, weighing my response. “We can still talk, you know. Friends talk.” Friends often talked about a heck of a lot more than the two of us ever had. With all the friends I’d had over the years—the ones who were more than merely acquaintances—I knew about their families, their pasts, their hopes and dreams. Those were the kinds of things I knew from their own mouths, not little bits and pieces I had gleaned secondhand from someone in their family who had unintentionally let a secret slip.

If Keith and I hadn’t already been sleeping together from the start, of course, and had instead begun as acquaintances working our way toward friendship, it wouldn’t bother me so much that he couldn’t talk to me about his family and his past yet. We hadn’t known each other very long at all. That was further proof that we’d jumped into the deep end of an icy pool without bothering to learn how to swim before taking the plunge.

He gave me a half-grin, definitely of the cheeky variety. “I just can’t go all grabby hands while we do it, huh?”

He was trying. I could appreciate the fact that he was making an effort, not pushing me away now that I’d insisted on getting to know him beyond the confines of the bedroom.

I chuckled. “Exactly.”

“I love your laugh, Brie.”

A desperate heat welled up in my belly and spread to my limbs. I had to find some way to quash that response to him or I’d never stick to my guns.

He pulled into a spot near my apartment and put the car in park. “Thank you for coming today, even if I didn’t get much time to spend with you. I wanted you to know the people in my life, if nothing else.”

Which only served as further proof of his efforts. I had a ton of respect for that. He wanted a real relationship even if he didn’t know how to have one anymore.

“I want to know them, too.” I chose my next words cautiously, fully aware that I might be opening a can of worms Keith wasn’t ready to face. “It was good to meet your brother. I didn’t know he would be here.”

He let out a snorting sort of laugh. “Neither did I.”

“Shane made it seem like he hadn’t really seen you much in a while. Several years.”

Pretty much since Garrett died, actually, based on what little I’d managed to piece together from what he’d said—and what he’d neglected to say. Shane didn’t seem any more inclined to talk about the past than Keith was, or at least not with me. But why should he tell me anything? All he had wanted to do was keep me entertained and try to sort out if he liked me at all during his brother’s party. It was kind of sweet, actually. Shane had stuck right by my side the whole time I’d been there, him and Cole, and it had seemed as though he was vetting me to determine if I was good enough for Keith.

The Burns brother with me now stayed silent.

“He said you two don’t really see each other even over your summers off when you go back to Nova Scotia,” I added, cautiously testing the waters a little more.

Everything about Keith tensed now—his jaw, his shoulders, the grip of his fingers on the steering wheel. I’d pushed too hard.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I shouldn’t have—”

“How much did he tell you?” There wasn’t even the slightest hint of anger in his voice. Only pain, deep and raw and thoroughly unrelieved.

My hand itched to reach across the divide and soothe him, but I couldn’t do that. That was against the rules, and I’d been the one to set them in the first place; I couldn’t cross that boundary. “Not much,” I finally said. “Only that he doesn’t get to see you very often.” I’d read between the lines and had formed my own conclusions, but there were still a ton of gaps in my interpretation.

The tension surrounding Keith was only growing. Nothing I had said was doing a darn thing to ease it. I should have left talk of his family alone and kept our conversation to lighter topics. I shouldn’t have tried to get him to talk about his past the very first time we’d seen each other after insisting we’d been moving things too fast, skipping too many steps.

“Do you—” I broke off, not entirely sure if inviting him up was wise of me, considering the circumstances. But there really wasn’t anything else to be done, as far as I could see. “Do you want to come upstairs and talk for a while?” I’d have to be sure to keep some distance between us physically. I might be able to use BC for that, actually. My cat would be all over us, and the cat could keep Keith’s hands busy.

His lips quirked up the tiniest bit at my invitation. “As long as you’re sure it doesn’t break any of your
just friends
rules.”

“If you keep your hands to yourself, everything will be fine.” I gave him a wink.

“There are plenty of things I can do without the use of my hands, you know. My lips and tongue have some skill…” Even as he made the lewd joke, he shut off the engine and got out of the car, grabbing the package he’d tossed in the backseat when we left his place. He came around to open my door for me, but he made a show of not reaching for my hand, merely sweeping an arm to the side in an overly grand gesture, indicating that I should lead the way.

I shook my head, unable to stop myself from smiling at him.

Once we got up to my apartment, I took off my coat and hung it in the hall closet. I turned around for his and caught him appreciatively eyeing my backside.

“Knock that off,” I warned him, reaching for his coat. Damn if I didn’t nearly laugh when I said it, though. He wouldn’t take me seriously if I couldn’t keep a straight face.

He handed it over to me and held his hands up in surrender. “No touching, like I promised, but I can’t help but enjoy the view. Please don’t ask me not to look because that’ll just about kill me. Have I ever told you how amazing your ass is?”

My breath caught. He was bound and determined to flirt with me, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t prevent myself from reacting in kind. I closed my eyes for a moment while I was hanging his coat next to mine, trying to compose myself with the knowledge that even as I did so, he was staring at my butt.

“You haven’t,” I finally managed to say, jumping slightly when something brushed against my leg, until I realized that it was only BC coming to greet me. “But that’s not what we’re going to talk about right now.”

“Damn. Too bad.” Keith backed out of the way as I moved past him into the kitchen, BC racing me the whole way.

“Something to drink?” I asked.

“Whatever you’re having.”

I grabbed two bottles of water, handing one to him as I made my way into the living room. BC came running after me again when I headed toward the couch, leaping up onto my lap when I’d only been sitting for about 0.024 seconds. I would never figure out how he managed to time that move, but he always executed it perfectly. I set my water bottle down on the coffee table so I could use both hands to rub on him. I’d been gone a lot lately, and both my boys missed me. I’d have to make it up to Richie later tonight, after Keith left. There was no chance he would come out of his hiding spot until then.

Keith sat next to me, maintaining a safe distance and tossing the package on the coffee table. He looked at me funny, one eyebrow cocked in question, and then he sniffed a couple of times and laughed. “It smells like pickles in here.”

I sniffed, too. Crap. Sure enough, there was a definite vinegar-and-dill scent on the air. BC must have actually knocked some of the pickle juice out of the jar without me realizing it the other night. I wouldn’t have noticed it then since I’d had pickle juice all over my hands and filling my mouth. “So it does,” I murmured.